A look at how the dominant religions of Burkina Faso have figured out how to co-habit. How China is increasing its crackdown on religion. And an examination of some of the main streams of Hindu philosophy. It's Faithful Friday, our weekly segment on faiths and religious communities from around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

West Africa isn't usually thought of as a bastion of peace in European or American eyes. Many still associate it with such disasters as the Ebola pandemic or atrocities like the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. But such a colonialist mindset often overlooks the things West Africa gets right: including religious pluralism. The BBC takes a look at how the dominant religions of Burkina Faso, including both Islam and Christianity, get along peacefully while struggling in other places.

Karma is one of those concepts from Indian and East Asian religions that's frequently cited but isn't always understand fully. It's simple to think of karma as something approximating the "threefold rule" in Wicca but it's a bit more nuanced than that. What's more, different religions (e.g. Hinduism vs. Buddhism) have different impressions of it. The Buddhist magazine Lion's Roar does its best to describe what karma means for Buddhism (and what it doesn't mean).

One thing that's surprised many across the country is how conservative white Evangelicals went from widely rejecting Donald Trump as the embodiment of everything they hated about modern culture to embracing him as the Republican Party's nominee. At The Huffington Post, Antonia Blumberg attempts to unravel the seeming contradiction.

After Mao it seemed for a time that China was letting up on its persecution of religious groups as the country attempted to convey a more modern, pluralist image to the world. But that may be reversing. The New York Times takes a look at how China is cranking up its persecution of groups that fail to adhere to the state's demands.

Hinduism is best known for its metaphysical and theological characteristics. But the religion is also host to a wide variety of philosophical streams of thought to rival those of the West or China. Hinduism Today provides a rundown of some of the most influential branches of Hindu-Indian philosophy.

Top image by Rak-Tai